Connecting diverse groups of readers and writers in Louisville, KY and beyond

Kirby Gann

Jericho Brown, one of five winners of the 80th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, a juried prize that recognizes how literature can advance ideas about race, culture, ethnicity and shared humanity, will be visiting Louisville this week. He will be visiting Central High School for a lecture and Master Class with creative writing students and teachers. Then Mr. Brown will kick off the first InKY of the season with Louisville novelist, Kirby Gann.

The InKY reading series usually takes place at The Bardstown, but will be at the Local Speed for this round to accommodate a larger crowd. There will be no open mic.

Sign up for a query letter workshop on Saturday, January 9, from 9:30 to 11:30 at PYRO Gallery

“Mastering Your Query,” will be an informative, participative and productive query-letter workshop with literary agent, Alice Speilburg. Alice will discuss the structure of a query letter, tricks to improve it and tactics to avoid. Group members will write (or revise) a query letter for a book, and will receive in-class instruction and peer critiques. The goal of this workshop is to help participants create a polished query letter they’ll be proud to send to agents and publishers.

Thanks to our artist friends at PYRO Gallery, at 909 E. Market Street, for loaning their creative space for this LLA workshop.

Alice is a literary agent at Speilburg Literary Agency and has worked in publishing since 2008. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators, and she is a board member of Louisville Literary Arts. She is currently building her client list and represents a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. For more information, please visit her website: or connect with her on Twitter @AliceNicoleH.

And Finally, The Keep Louisville Literary radio hour on artxfm.com has moved to a new time slot starting this Tuesday, 9am

for now keep dialing into the website. but oh so soon will we hit your car radio on 97.1 WXOX

Frank Bill will read with poet James Arthur (whose debut collection Charms Against Lightening is available from Copper Canyon Press) @ hotel 21c (700 W. Main St. Louisville, KY) on Monday, March 25th at 7:30pm. Being a Hoosier (transplanted to Louisville for several years now), I couldn’t resist (digitally) tracking down Frank Bill, an actual hunter, to discuss his debut novel Donnybrook, which if you haven’t heard is gaining more traction than a 4×4.

Brandon Stettenbenz: To start, let me address recent interviews, so I’m not making you repeat yourself. Rob Brunner of TheAwl.com called Donnybrook “a blood-sodden, bone-crunch of a debut novel”…”unrepentantly, gleefully violent”. That’s a mouthful of action-packed vocabulary. Give us an excerpt that proves him right.

Frank Bill: Jarhead veered the barrel two feet away from Dote. Blew a hole in the wall. The shell hit the counter. Another fell into place. Dote’s ears rang as he reached for the gun barrel. Jarhead pushed into the counter. Butted the hot barrel through Dote’s hands. Stabbed it into Dote’s coral nose like a spear. Cartilage popped. Dote hollered, “Shit!” Tears fell from his blinking eyes. Jarhead said, “I ain’t asking.”

BS: What other fluids besides blood are pumping under the hood of Donnybrook?

FB: Working class survival. Crystal meth. Guns. Booze. Bare knuckles boxing. The human condition. And a lot of people that others like to pretend do not exist.

BS: In the same interview (TheAwl.com), you spoke a bit about dialect and how you realized someone could “write where they are from”. I heard the same thing when Jen Woods spoke about reading Maurice Manning (a Kentucky-born poet) for the first time, and I think that maybe rural origins and culture are often considered inferior despite the intricate character of such cultures. What can you tell us about the difficulties you’ve encountered/overcome as a rural writer?

FB: I’ve not had any difficulties to overcome. I write about where I come from. What I see and hear and of course things I’ve done or stories I grew up around. The only thing I do not like are labels, like country noir, if anything, I like the term rural literature. Or grit-lit.

BS: Weren’t you actually doing readings out in Corydon, Indiana, with Kirby Gann (author of Ghosting) and others? I never heard of anything like that going on when I was growing up in Georgetown. Did you guys get a good turnout and or reaction to the readings out there?

FB: When a few of my short stories had gotten published way back in 2008 or 2009 two writers, Jed Ayres and Scott Phillips invited me to this reading series called Noir at the Bar in St. Louis, Missouri.

I made the four trek and read one of the Hill Clan stories. It was my first reading, and I read with Scott, Jed, and Anthony Neil Smith ( he was touring to promote his novel Hogdoggin’). The idea is people come to hear writers read, buy booze and if you’re a published author, this was long before my book deal, people will buy your book.

Basically, I did the same thing here in my hometown. I wanted to give back to those who are up and coming but also established, hence inviting Kirby Gann, who as you know can scribe the balls off of a bull. I also invited Jed Ayres (one of the best writers I know) to help promote his work and anthology Noir at the Bar 2 and David James Keaton (his first book of stories is out Fish Bites Cop). The turnout was great for my area, around 40-50 people.

BS: You mentioned that Fight Club [the film] set you on a literary track and you also mentioned reading comics growing up. While most people know what kinds of twisted carnage to expect from Palahniuk, I can also think of a few explicitly violent comic books (mostly Frank Miller to be honest). Do you think comic books have had any influence on your work?

FB: I read a lot of Frank Miller growing up. His contribution to Daredevil. The Ronin series. Sin City and The Dark Knight. I never read much fiction until I was around 29 or 30. But in high school I read a lot of nonfiction about serial murders. Ed Gein, The Zodiac, Henry Lee Lucas and Gary Heidnik.

BS: Who are some fellow crime-fiction writers you either feel influenced by or just think we all should read?

Frank Bill is the author of a well-received collection of short crime fiction titled Crimes in Southern Indiana(Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011). His debut novel, Donnybrook (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013) is currently garnering praise, press, and reviews nationally from Flavorwire.com, Revolver and others. Frank lives in Corydon, Indiana and works at a chemical plant as a forklift driver.

While these may not exactly be rock-bottom prices on consumer goods, I wanted to show everyone who may be in the midst of the early holiday-shopping frenzy where they might find some local books & journals for themselves and other bibliophiles in their lives!

Sheri Wright, poet and fine-art photographer, self-released her sixth collection The Feast of Erasure this year. You can purchase poetry books and photo prints directly.

Local poet and journalist, not to mention the progenitor of InKY (say thanks next time you see her!), Erin Keane has two booksDeath-Defying Acts, a collection of gritty prose poems about complex carnival folk, and The Gravity Soundtrack, filled with poems inspired by (mostly American Rock) music.

Brian Leung is the author of the novels Take Me Home and World Famous Love Acts. Look for his work at Carmichael’s Books and other local bookstores.

Adam Day is the author of the poetry chapbook Badger Apocrypha, which can be found at Carmichael’s as well. He is searching for a publisher for a newer, full-length collection of poems and writing a novel.

Kirby Gann is the author of three novels: The Barbarian Parade, Our Napoleon in Rags, and mostly recently Ghosting (click to read reviews including kudos from Publisher’s Weekly).

Typecast publishing is an up-and-coming small press that likes to make unique books by hand. Originating out of The Lumberyard magazine project with Fire Cracker Press (#10 available soon!), this Louisville, KY based publisher has had a huge impact on the local lit. scene and continues to volunteer time, etc. to The Writer’s Block festival, and other projects. They’ve so far published fiction and poetry which you can find for purchase on their website (I recommend M. Bartley Seigel’s collection of poems about the rust-belt, This is What They Say; he also heads a rag called PANK which isn’t local but I do HIGHLY recommend reading it).

Larkspur Press is a publisher of hand-made books whose letterpress shop is in Monterey, KY. They have published Fred Smock who currently teaches at Bellarmine, Richard Taylor formerely at Kentucky University, and UofL graduate and current KY poet-laureate Maureen Morehead among others. These hand-cut and bound books feature wood-block and linoleum block prints by artists such as Steve Armstrong and many others.

Sarabande Books is a non-profit literary press founded in 1994 in Louisville, KY. They focus on poetry, short fiction, and essay. You can search their catalog here.

Catch-up is headed up locally by Adam Day and Jeff Hipsher. They have recently released their third issue guest edited by Catherine Wagner, Sean Bishop, Hannah Gamble, and DA Powell.

You can read interviews with most of these authors and publishers here. Take a look; inform your holiday and other purchases. Remember, these folks work for a living. They don’t mark up their goods, and thus you won’t find any high-pressure sales, only fine literary art! This means two things: you’re putting money in the hands of the makers, and you can shop local books all year long! Also, whether you dig any of the books listed above or not, please BUY LOCAL and KEEP LOUISVILLE LITERARY!

(Full Disclosure: I am privileged to know some of these fine artists personally)